Sawyers: Taxpayers should be told the price of proposals for improving Prince Avenue

Posted: Thursday, December 09, 2004

By Harry Sawyers

A team of volunteers has been at work for months on what promises to be an impressive development plan for Prince Avenue. But for taxpayers and residents alike, the plan has a catch: No one yet seems capable of putting a dollar sign on it.

No dollar signs cropped up Oct. 18 when the group, Community Approach to Planning Prince Avenue (CAPPA), presented its goals. Subsequent interviews with CAPPA principals also failed to yield information on costs for any of the array of proposals for the corridor.

CAPPA's recommendations are taken from more than 600 local surveys and 50 interviews with business owners. They include pedestrian safety improvements - islands in medians and raised crosswalks - and more ambitious goals such as green-roofed parking decks, burial of power lines, and small parks wherever they'll fit.

The goal is to integrate the interests of residents, businesses, local and state government to make the 2.5-mile corridor a safer place to walk, bike or drive. Using visual representations of design alternatives - available on the Web at www.planningprince.org - the group proposes ways to preserve the street's history and plan for its future growth.

Because the plan still is in its conceptual stages, costs and funding options have not been determined, according to Pratt Cassity of the University of Georgia College of Environment and Design, who is working with CAPPA. Depending on which proposals are eventually accepted, he said, costs could range from the thousands to the millions of dollars.

"This work solidifies the community's vision," said Cassity, who has engineered similar projects in more than two dozen other places.

Implementation of projects like the Prince Avenue initiative "is mostly piecemeal," Cassity explained. "Communities take the proposals apart, then carve out fundable units."

Cassity said he hopes the project will establish a dialogue so diverse interests - of Prince Avenue residents, businesses, and the government - can be met.

Like many Athens-Clarke residents, I consider Prince Avenue a treasure. It is the major corridor adjacent to many of Athens' oldest neighborhoods, places like Boulevard, Cobbham and Pulaski Heights. It also is the home of Athens Regional Medical Center, the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School and 11 churches.

Tony Eubanks, co-chairman of CAPPA, describes the planning process as "private businesses and government teaming together. It's a blueprint for building partnerships."

Eubanks will lead an implementation committee to determine which proposals are economically feasible. Funding could come from various organizations, he said. Streetscape proposals, such as raised pedestrian crosswalks and divided medians, might be financed through state transportation grants. Funding for smaller projects, like brick signs announcing entrances to various historic districts, would likely come from neighborhood associations.

Eubanks said he is optimistic about the future of the Prince Avenue, even though financing for proposed improvements hasn't been lined up.

"It's never ceased to amaze me how creatively Athens attacks fund raising. If the project's good enough, the money will come," he said. "The fund raising will be as creative as the designs."

Though in its preliminary stages, the plan looks appealing. Much of the development that could occur promises benefits that would greatly improve the corridor, already one of the city's most valuable assets.

But local taxpayers are already under a heavy burden, and cannot make a judgment about CAPPA's mission without knowing how much of the money for improving Prince Avenue will come from their checkbooks.

The public interest is considerable - the survey responses represent nearly one-quarter of the 2,500 surveys distributed. But as enthusiasm and momentum build, so does the public's right to know the price behind the plan.

 Sawyers, 22, is graduating from the University of Georgia this month with a dual degree in English and journalism.